I’ll bet there’s some good seeds buried in here!
I’ll bet you’re ready to chase away those Monday blahs with another auditory artifact that will have Friday on your mind. We aim to please at The Nest, so it’s time to get out our shovels and dig up another gopher eaten lost hit out of that garden of ancient variety we like to call The Dusty Vinyl Archive! DJ Scratchy’s got her overalls on and is more than ready to get a little dirty playing this week’s lost hit, while the Sponkies fetch the Miracle Gro. It’s time to reap what we’ve sown…
The third part of our trilogy of funky looking late 80’s music videos/lost hits brings us to a band duo who was quite popular during the MTV decade, Tears For Fears. Riding the coattails of the Duran Duran led second British Invasion, Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith hit it huge in the US with their 1985 album Songs From The Big Chair. That album alone spawned a pair of #1 hits in the States, “Shout” and “Everybody Wants To Rule the World,” and also gave us another corporate radio staple “Head Over Heels.” That trio has become the duo’s lasting legacy in the US…
Let it all out!
Tears For Fears’ 1989 follow up album The Seeds Of Love was also well received and led to a #2 Billboard hit in its own right….. which has largely been flushed down the toilet of our memories. That sucks, because it’s my absolute favorite TFF song… “Sowing The Seeds Of Love.”
The lyrics, which I’d never paid much attention to since Orzabal rattles them off like an MC in a rap-off competition, are about as overtly political as you can get… and according to the song’s Wiki page, he wrote this song in the immediate aftermath of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s election to a third term. It’s also very ironic title since Olazabal and Smith had a very acrimonious falling out shortly afterwards that led to the band’s breakup in 1991…
Sowing the Seeds of Fuck You.
If you watched the video, and have read my past two DVA posts, you’ll understand why this video is being featured today. It shares a lot of the same gimmicky visuals that the Michael Jackson and Paul Simon videos from the last two weeks do. I grouped these three songs together based on that commonality in their videos and the time period in which they were released, and wondered if there was one person behind all three of them. Lo and behold, this line from the same link to the Wiki article for “Sowing the Seeds Of Love” that I linked above…
The music video was directed by Jim Blashfield, who had already made acclaimed videos for Joni Mitchell (“Good Friends”), Paul Simon (“The Boy in the Bubble”) and Michael Jackson (“Leave Me Alone”).
Well how about that? I was right! And just to finish off the Jim Blashfield experience, here’s the video for Joni Mitchell’s “Good Friends.” Will it look like the other three Blashfield videos I just featured?
Yep!
Come back next Monday for another lost hit that may or may not have had an associated music video…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I liked shout a lot… but now after 87 years I wonder how all the (f)artists loked in their videos and how they tried to be arrogant and untouchable … was that cool that time? today it looks ridiculous to me LOL
Roland always looked like a jerk to me in the TFF videos, although I’ll bet he’s doesn’t look like as much of a butthole as the Beaver kid does…
What a photo again, a singing squirrel, I love it.
It’s such a funny picture!
Always liked TFF…….Whatever station I was listening to though didn’t give airplay to “Sowing The Seeds of Love” because it’s a new one on me. I like it though – always thought these two did a great job together – too bad they had a “bad” parting! Love the singing squirrel photo too – or is he yelling out “HONEY I’M HOME!!!!!” ???
Pam
Yeah, I’ve heard this song on the radio maybe once or twice ever, and probably not since our long gone 80’s station changed formats. That may be Fred Squirrel shouting for Wilma…
HAHAHA…..I can almost hear that Flintstone yell! 🙂
I hear this song and I’m immediately in a dressing room in Kohl’s. I have no idea what the lyrics are, but man do I remember that tune while shopping for clothes.
I don’t know if I can ever remember this being played at Mecca. Kohl’s may have better muzak than we do. Someone should do a study on chain store muzak and rate the best places for your ears to shop…
There are very few songs that do not have a specific memory assigned to them in my head… this is apparently one of them. I remember the song. I also remember HATING the song so maybe that is why I don’t have a memory associated with it other than the dislike of it. It is interesting timing and the lyrics make sense from the timing. Thanks for this history lesson and Monday morning “Scratchy” 😉
I actually missed this one the first time around, but caught it sometime in the late 90’s when 80’s music videos were making a comeback on VH1. It’s weird to look back at old songs and discover the meanings behind them I didn’t know in my oh so innocent younger days…
Loved the TFF group! Some of those MTV videos back in the day were so weird. I’d leave the TV on as background noise and come through the room and stop in my tracks trying to figure out what the yikes was going on. I can definitely see the common thread here. Happy Monday. 🎶
I remember hearing that some people who didn’t know what was going on were calling repairmen to fix their TV’s because of the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen that were a very common gimmick in a lot of early 80’s videos. I guess they should have borrowed a page from the bank and put a message on the bars saying “This Space Left Intentionally Blank”…
Oh no, and to think I left the leagaleese gaga ages ago.
The rhythm of the song (not the chorus) reminds me of the Beatles, I Am the Walrus.
I do think the song Shout is okayish. I have never heard the two others. I didn’t care for this one at all. I never liked TFF. I tried this though. You just never know when one of these 80s groups might sound great.
I am going back to read your MJ and Paul Simon posts. I like both of them, even in the 80s!
Love the squirrel pics.
It does have a bit of a Walrus vibe to it… particularly with how the lyrics are sung. I’d imagine (no pun intended) if The Beatles had this technology available to them back in the day, that a video for I Am The Walrus would look a lot like a Jim Blashfield production…
You are probably right!!
I never liked Tears For Fears. There’s just something about their look, their sound, their songs…just any of them, no.
The Joni Mitchell song & video was pretty cool, though. I hadn’t heard it before.
TFF is far from one of my favorite 80’s acts, though I like this one and Head Over Heels… I dislike Shout and especially Everybody Wants To Rule the World. I had never heard the Joni Mitchell song either… I wasn’t even aware she was around in the MTV age!
ody N biskit; we due knot rememburr this tears for fears toon….will hafta haz de food sevizz gurl give it a spin when her getz home ! 🙂
I know the band of course but not that song. Didn’t much like it either. Didn’t like the Joni Wosname one either. You’re 0 for 2, Squirrel. Bah Humbug heh heh.
Good videos, though. They don’t make ’em like that any more…
I didn’t much care for the Joni Mitchell song either and didn’t even watch the whole video… I only included it for the sake of completeness.
Didn’t like either song much – maybe the squirrel would make them sound better?